Chapter 17

Promoting
Safety and
Health

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright 2013 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
1. Define safety and health hazards.
2. Examine the causes of work-related accidents and
illnesses.
3. Explain the legal environment of occupational health and
safety regulations, including OSHA and its proposed
amendments.
4. Analyze the impact of stress, violence, IEQ, AIDS, and
repetitive motion injuries on the workplace.
5. Calculate the costs and benefits of an organizational
health and safety program.

17-2
 Modern workplaces can be just as
hazardous as factories and mines

High Repetitive Fire

stress motions hazards

17-3
Safety hazards Poorly maintained equipment
can cause
immediate, Unsafe machinery
violent harm
or even death Exposure to hazardous chemicals

Loss of hearing

Loss of eyesight or body parts

Potential Cuts, sprains, burns, bruises

injuries
Electric shock

17-4
 Health hazards slowly and cumulatively lead
to deterioration of health
Physical and biological hazards
Toxic and carcinogenic dusts and chemicals

Stressful working conditions

Cancer or respiratory disease
Heavy-metal or other poisoning
Psychological disorders
Safety and health hazards can also harm non-
employees Poisonous gas from a Union Carbide plant
in Bhopal, India killed 3,000 people and injured
300,000 17-5
 Job hazards span all levels of the economy

Only after passage of the OSHA Act in 1970 did

recording and reporting of safety and health
statistics become mandatory

The number of occupational injuries

and illnesses is decreasing

Enhanced job safety training

Greater compliance with safety and health standards

17-6
17-7
About 15 American workers are killed each
day
It is impossible to fully assess the scope of
the events
To narrow the data gap, the Bureau of Labor
Statistics designed a Census of Fatal
Occupational Injuries
This generates verified counts of fatal work
injuries, as well as how they occurred

17-8
To
Tocontrol
controlreporting
reportingdiscrepancies,
discrepancies,multiple
multiplesources
sources
are
areused
usedto
tocompile
compilethe
theinformation
information

OSHA
OSHA NewsMedia
News Media Deathcertificates
Death certificates

WorkersComp
Workers Compand
and Toxicology&&
Toxicology
coronersreports
coroners reports autopsyreports
autopsy reports

Follow-up
Follow-up Statemotor
State motorvehicle
vehicle Otherfederal
Other federal
questionnaires
questionnaires reports
reports reports
reports

17-9
 Highway fatalities
Leading causes
of on-the-job Falling
deaths
Homicide

Store personnel
Most victims of
workplace Gas station attendants
homicides are
Taxicab drivers

17-10
 Tasks
Major causes of
occupational Working conditions
accidents
Nature of the employees

Causes related Poorly designed/repaired machines

to the task
and working Lack of protective equipment
conditions
Dangerous chemicals or gases

17-11
 Fatigue

Noise

Poor lighting

Boredom

Horseplay and fighting

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and

Health investigates causes of accidents and hazards

17-12
 Direct cost of health and safety issues

Workers compensation

Indirect Costs

Lost productivity
Damage to plant and equipment
Replacement employees
Time costs for employees who must investigate
and report on the accident or illness

17-13
Before 1970, many felt too little was being done
to ensure safe and healthy working conditions

The federal Walsh-Healy Act was

weak and inadequately enforced

State programs were incomplete,

diverse, and lacking in authority

In 1936 alone, 35,000 workplace

deaths were reported

17-14
 Lobbying by unions and employees led to the
passage of laws related to specific occupations

Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969

Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1969

In the year that OSHA became law

Over 14,000 fatalities

2.2 million disabilities
300,000-500,000 occupationally induced illnesses

17-15
 OSHA

Conducts Provisions cover

Enforced by
research and 4 million businesses
federal
develops & 57 million workers
inspectors in
workplace in almost every
partnership
safety & organization
with state
health engaged in
agencies
standards interstate commerce

17-16
 State agencies are encouraged to

Assume responsibility for developing and administering

occupational health and safety laws
Carry out their own statistical programs

Before gaining full authority for programs, a state must

Have the preliminary approval of OSHA
Take developmental steps, such as adjusting
legislation and hiring inspectors
Enter trial period at full enforcement levels for a year

17-17
17-18
Employees can seek an injunction

If OSHA and the employer fail to

provide safe working conditions
Can be done as an individual
or through a union
Forces the employer to submit to an
inspection or to correct violations
Employers cannot discriminate against
an employee who takes this action

17-19
 Meet
Meetsafety
safety Submit
Submit to
toOSHA
OSHA
standards
standardsset
set inspections
inspections
by
byOSHA
OSHA

OSHA Employer Requirements

Report
Report
accidentsand
accidents and Keeprecords
Keep records
illnesses
illnesses

17-20
 OSHA safety standards can affect
any aspect of the work place

Standards may be industry-wide or

apply only to a specific enterprise

The assistant secretary of labor

Revises, modifies, revokes existing standards

Creates new ones on his/her own initiative or

on the basis of petitions from interested parties

17-21
NIOSH in the Dept. of Health and Human Services
Does research from which standards are
developed
Trains those involved in their implementation
Federal or national standards can also become
OSHA standards
Employers may receive temporary variances by
showing inability to comply in the time allowed
There must be a plan to protect employees from
the hazard

17-22
 The
Theemployer
employerisisresponsible
responsiblefor
for
knowing
knowingwhat
whatthe
thestandards
standardsare
areand
and
abiding
abidingbybythem
them
The responsible manager is subject to
thousands of pages of such standards

If they are not met, the manager

can be fined or jailed
The organization can also be shut down

17-23
 OSHA Inspectors Visit Businesses

On their own schedules, or by invitation

Employees can request inspections anonymously

Sanction Categories

Other than Repeated

Serious Willful
serious violation

17-24
 OSHA inspections are not limited to the
traditional workplace

In 2004, nearly 21 million people in the U.S.

performed part of their primary job at home

Should OSHA treat home offices

like other work sites?

Most oppose to such intrusions into private lives

Contrary to the belief that homes are safer than

work locations, home office injuries are increasing

17-25
 Keep standardized records of
illnesses and injuries
OSHA requires that
employers Calculate accident ratios

Those that result in death

Accidents and Disabilities that cause the

illnesses that must employee to miss work
be reported Injuries that require treatment
by a physician

17-26
Employers go to great lengths to categorize
incidents as minor injuries

Performing first aid and keeping

the employee on the job

Reporting can lead to OSHA inspection or

raise workers comp insurance rates

Firms must post a summary of injuries and

illnesses, in a prominent place at work

17-27
17-28
 OSHA gives employees the right to

Request an OSHA inspection

Be present during the inspection

Protection from reprisal for reporting the company

Access his or her company medical records

Refuse to work if there is a real danger of death,

serious injury, or illness from job hazards

17-29
HR specialists should
Know which OSHA standards apply to the
company
Make sure they are being met
Keep OSHA records up to date
File reports on time
All managers should make OSHA effective
at the organizational level
They can also write their congressional
representatives to improve it

17-30
Approaches
Approachesto
to Improving
Improving Workplace
WorkplaceSafety
Safety

Prevention
Prevention Training
Training
and
and and
and
design Inspection
Inspection motivation
design motivation
and
and
research
research

17-31
Design more safety into the workplace
Make jobs more comfortable, less confusing,
and less fatiguing

Slow down the speed of an assembly line

Add protective guards to machinery

Use color coding in dangerous areas

17-32
 Inspecting the workplace can
reduce accidents and illnesses

Are safety rules being observed?

How many near misses have occurred?

Are safety guards, protective equipment,

and so on being used?
Are there potential hazards in the workplace
that safety redesign can improve?
Are there potential health hazards?

17-33
 Safety and health journals
At regular
intervals, Reports from NIOSH
accident data
should be Workplace accident reports
gathered from
internal and Inspection reports by the government
external and the organizations safety specialists
sources
Recommendations of the
safety committees

17-34
Accident research often involves
computing
organizational accident rates

17-35
 Safety Training is Often Part of Orientation

It also occurs throughout the employees career

Some training is voluntary; some is
required by government agencies

Studies of the Effectiveness are Mixed

Some methods are more effective than others

Others contend success is due to the perception
that management really believes in safety training
Some studies find that programs make employees
more aware of safety, but not safer in their behavior
17-36
 Definition of Health

The absence of disease

Or, a state of physical, mental, and
social well-being

Health Risks

Physical and biological hazards

Toxic and cancer-causing dusts and chemicals

Stressful work conditions

17-37
Success of a safety & health program requires the
support and cooperation of all

Top management

Operating Managers

HR Department

Safety committees

Health/safety specialists

Government inspectors

17-38
 Levels of Safety Committees

Policy level: Departmental level:

Made up of major Both supervisors and
division heads employees are members

Committees are involved with the entire safety program

Inspection, design, record keeping, training, and motivation

17-39
 Environmental factors affect the
health and safety of employees

The nature of the task

Employees attitudes toward health and safety

The economic condition of the organization

Unions

Managements goals

The government
17-40
Factors contributing to the sharp rise in health
benefit costs
An aging workforce
Competition among health insurance carriers
Cost shifting from government to the private
sector
Inefficiency of health care providers
Increasing malpractice litigation
Failure of employers to respond to these
changing patterns
Increasing number of medical interventions

17-41
The preventive or wellness
approach encourages
employees to make
lifestyle changes
Better nutrition and
regular exercise
programs
Abstinence from
smoking and alcohol
Stress counseling
Annual physical exams

17-42
Periodic evaluation to be sure objectives are being met

Ongoing communication of the programs

goals and components
HRM monitoring of related issues,
such as AIDS and cancer
Community involvement

Staffing with qualified health care specialists

Establishment of a separate budget

17-43
 Mid-
Mid-and
andsmall-sized
small-sizedemployers
employerscan
canoffer
offerscaled-
scaled-
down
downwellness
wellnessprograms
programsand
andreap
reapthe
thesame
samebenefits
benefits

The 12 steps detailed by Coors should be

followed, regardless of company size

The
Thewellness
wellnessor
orpreventive
preventiveapproach
approachis
isnot
notfoolproof
foolproof
Especially true if the program is adopted
without fully understanding the necessity of
Commitment by management

Manager-employee communication

17-44
There may be as many
safety/health hazards in the
modern workplace as there
were during the rise of the
factory system
Some hazards are actually
the same
Others are the result of
changing technology,
demographics, and lifestyle
factors
17-45
 Stress isnt always bad
Good stress (eustress) helps with task
completion and problem-solving

Negative stress
Costs U.S. employers between $200 billion
and $300 billion a year
Increased workers compensation claims

Personnel Lost productivity and turnover

Higher health care costs

17-46
 What
What is
is Stress?
Stress?

A persons physical, It occurs when

chemical, and mental environmental forces
reactions to stressors (stimuli) throw bodily
or stimuli in the and mental functions
environment out of equilibrium

17-47
 Heart
Heart Stress has been Psychological
Psychological
disease
disease linked to problems
problems

Hypertension
Hypertension Colitis
Colitis
Peptic
Peptic
ulcers
ulcers

17-48
 Changes
Changesin
inthe
thework
workand
andpersonal
personal
environment
environmentare
areunavoidable
unavoidable

Too often, managers under-estimate how

changes can throw a person off kilter

A person who is not comfortable with the

work environment is in a state of
disequilibrium

17-49
 Subjective Organizational
(feeling fatigued) (absence rate)
Lack of fit can
have results on
several levels
Behavioral Physiological
(accident prone) (blood pressure)

Cognitive
(mental block)

17-50
High levels of stress or lack of fit
can be costly
Premature deaths of employees
Higher accident rates
Performance inefficiencies
Increased turnover
Increased disability payments

17-51
 Work overload
Common stressors
Boredom

Role conflict

Deal with stress individually

Coping with stress

Eliminate the stressor

17-52
 Coping With Stress at the Individual Level

Bio-
Meditation Exercise Diet
feedback

Coping With Stress at the Organizational Level

Stress reduction Structural, job, and

workshops, seminars policy changes

17-53
Stress management Alcoholism
programs are used
in Japan, where Mental breakdowns
work-related stress
is contributes to Suicide

Death from overwork, or stress

death
The cumulative effect of working in
Work-related stress
is called karoushi a situation where one feels
trapped and powerless to
effect any change

17-54
Over 1.7 million violent crimes occur in
American workplaces each year
A single case of workplace violence can cost
more than $250,000 in lost work time and legal
expenses
25% of all workers have been harassed,
threatened, or attacked on the job
Of those, 15% were physically attacked
Attacks are most often perpetrated by
customers or clients, although the ones most
heard about are by disgruntled employees

17-55
 In determining liability, violent behavior is
divided into three categories

Violence by an employee directed at a third party

Violence by an employee directed at another

employee
Violence by a non-employee (third party) directed
at an employee in the workplace

17-56
 Pre-Employment Measures

ADA-compliant applicant screening

Post-Employment Measures

Create culture of mutual respect, open communication,

empowerment, and recognition
Develop supervisory training classes in negotiation,
communication, listening, team building, conflict resolution

17-57
 Post-employment measures (continued)

Refer troubled employees to EAPs for help with

work and personal problems
Provide emotional support and outplacement
programs for laid-off employees
Conduct exit interviews that identify potentially
violent responses to termination
Implement a clear, well-communicated, easily accessible
grievance procedure and encourage employees to use it

17-58
 Post-employment measures (continued)

Develop a confidential reporting system

Strictly control access to the workplace with a

consistently enforced, up-to-date security system
Train supervisors to recognize the signs of drug and
alcohol abuse, depression, and other problems

Develop/implement a plan to deal with violent incidents

17-59
 Over the last decade, there has been more
concern over the indoor office environment

Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) refers to the quality

of the air in a business environment

Sick-building syndrome covers symptoms employees

believe are caused by the building itself

Employees zero in on IEQ because symptoms are

often alleviated by leaving the building

17-60
A NIOSH workplace health hazard evaluation
can be requested by

Any employer

Any employee

An employee representative (union)

A local, state, or federal government agency

17-61
 Air quality

Noise Discomfort
Sick-building
syndrome
factors
Job-related
psychological Poor lighting
stressors
Ergonomic
stressors
17-62
Typical Symptoms Headaches

Unusual fatigue
Why IEQ problems
are increasing Itching/burning of eyes/skin

Nasal congestion
New buildings are
virtually airtight Dry throat
Computers and Nausea
other technology

17-63
 Sick-Building Syndrome Has Been Linked to

Inadequate
Inadequate Chemical
Chemical Biological
Biological
ventilation
ventilation contaminants
contaminants contaminants
contaminants

Inadequate
Inadequate Highhumidity
High humidity
temperatures
temperatures

Secondhand
Secondhand Asbestos Radon
smoke Asbestos Radon
smoke

17-64
Removal of the Banning
pollutant smoking
Solutions include
combinations of

Modification of Installing particle

ventilation control devices

Cleaning the air

17-65
 Smokers Have More Health Problems

Healthcare expenditures directly linked to

smoking total $72 billion per year in the U.S.

Lawsuits will be more prevalent in the next decade

Smoking in workplaces is often banned

Some employers no longer hire smokers

The legality of these policies
is being challenged

17-66
In the 1970s, the U.S. reported its first
cases of
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)

The letters in AIDS stand for

Acquired
Immune
Deficiency
Syndrome

17-67
 HIV Transmission

Blood, body products, or sexual activity

At the beginning of this century

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that

over 33 million people were infected with HIV

17-68
 More than 500,000 Americans have contracted
AIDS since the late 1970s
97% are of working age
75% are between the ages of 25 and 44
AIDS is the second leading cause of death for
those between the ages of 25 and 44
Up to 1 million Americans may be infected with
HIV-AIDS, but not yet show symptoms

17-69
Individuals infected with HIV-AIDS are protected
under the Americans with Disabilities Act

Due to the complexity AIDS and the

multiplicity of related illnesses, one needs
greater understanding of the medical symptoms

HR managers may have a hard time

determining how to comply with the law
Every employer in the U.S. will eventually have
at least one employee with AIDS

17-70
 Significant productivity has been lost due to

Illness and disability

Premature death

Co-worker fear to the disease

1992, OSHA passed Bloodborne Pathogen Standards

Applies to all workplaces with employees

who could reasonably be expected to come
into contact with blood or body fluids
17-71
 Employers must develop, implement, and
adhere to these guidelines

Develop an exposure control plan

Take universal precautions to avoid contamination

Develop cleaning protocols

Have workers wear personal protective equipment

Communicate the presence of hazards

Inform, train, and keep records of all incidents

17-72
 Primary Role of Managers
Preserve the individuals privacy

Company approaches to dealing with AIDS

Categorize AIDS under a comprehensive
life-threatening illness policy
Form an AIDS-specific policy

Have no policy

AIDS remains almost 100% fatal

17-73
 Repetitive stress injuries (RSIs) and
cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs) are
epidemic
Meatpacking and chicken processing plants
Grocery stores
Offices with personal computers
Over 65% of newly reported illnesses are
Carpal tunnel syndrome
Noise-induced hearing loss

17-74
 Manufacturing
Most
Mostaffected
affected
sectors Services
sectors
Wholesale and retail trade

RSI
RSIand
andCTD
CTD CTD refers to trauma or injury that
are
arenot
not occurs more than once
specific
specific RSI refers to an activity that becomes
medical
medical harmful due to the number
conditions
conditions of repetitions

17-75
 Eight
Eightbones
bonesininthe
thewrist
wrist(carpals)
(carpals)form
formaa
tunnel-like
tunnel-likestructure
structurefilled
filledwith
withflexor
flexortendons
tendons
The tendons control finger Sensory nerves run
movements through the tunnel as well

Repetitive flexing/extension of the wrist can cause

thickening of the sheaths that surround the tendons
17-76
 Painful tingling in the hands

A feeling of uselessness in the fingers

Decreased ability and strength to squeeze things

Sometimes, muscle atrophy & loss of hand strength

NIOSH has linked carpal tunnel syndrome to many

occupations, especially in manufacturing

17-77
 A single case of CTS can cost $30,000 to treat

Treatment can involve surgery, physical therapy,

and anti-inflammatory medication

Prevention of CTS
Relieve awkward wrist
Provide frequent
positions and forceful
rest breaks
arm/hand movements

Rotate jobs Modify workstations

17-78
 Senior
Employee Ongoing review
management
involvement and evaluation
commitment

Training and Company-wide Data

education scheduling collection

Detailed Medical
Surveillance
job design management

17-79
The consequences of inadequate health and safety
programs are measurable

Increased workers compensation payments

Increased lawsuits

Larger insurance costs

Fines from OSHA

Union pressures

17-80
 Indicator Effective
systems reporting
systems

Employee A safety Rules and

participation management procedures
program
requires
Rewards
for effective
Proper job design
management
Top management of safety
support

17-81
 A health and safety program can be
evaluated in a cost-benefit sense

Cause-and-
Cause-and- Effectivesafety
Effective safety
Benefitsmay
Benefits maybebe
effect
effect programs
programs
bothtangible
both tangible
relationships
relationships need not
need not be
be
andintangible
and intangible
canbe
can becomplex
complex expensive
expensive

17-82
1. Define safety and health hazards.
2. Examine the causes of work-related accidents and illnesses.
3. Explain the legal environment of occupational health and
safety regulations, including OSHA and its proposed
amendments.
4. Analyze the impact of stress, violence, IEQ, AIDS, and
repetitive motion injuries on the workplace.
5. Calculate the costs and benefits of an organizational health
and safety program.

17-83